Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1887-05-21

my father, my mother my uncle, a very old
man, older than the haas pointing to Silas
croft, "were bijwoners authorized squat
tersl on place belonging to old Jacob Muller,
Baas Franks father, down in Lydenburg
yonder. 1t was a bush veldt farm, and old
Jacob used to come down there with his cattle
from the High veldt in the winter when there
was no grass in the High velit, and with him
came the Englishwoman, his wife, and the
young Baas Frank-the baas we saw yester-
day
~How long ago was all this!" asked Mr..
Croft.
Jantjs counted on his fingers for some sec
onds, and then held up his hand and opened
it four times in succession. So he said,
"twenty years last winter. Baas Frank was
young then; he had only little down upon
his chin. One year, when ON Jacob went
away, after the first rains, he left six oxen
that were too poor thin to go with my faith
er, and told him to look after them as though
they We're his children. But the oxen were
bewitched. Three of them took the lungsick
and died, lion got one, a snake killed one,
and one ate tulip and died too. So when
On Jacob came back the next year all the
oxen were gone He was very angry with
my father, and beat him with yoke strap
till he was all blood, and, though we showed
him the bones of the oxen, he said that we
had stolen them and sold them.
Now, ON Jacob had a beautiful span of
black oxen that he loved like children Six
teen of them were there, and they would
come up to the yoke when he called them and
put down their heads of themselves. They
were tame as dogs. These oxen were thin
when they came down, but in two months
they got fat and began TO want to trek about
as oxen do. At this time there was Basutu,
one of Sequati's people, resting in our hut,
for he had hurt his foot with a thorn. When
ON Jacob found that the Basutu was there
he was very angry, Tor he said that all Basu-
tus were thieves So my father told the
Basutu that the baas said that be must go
away, and he went that night Next morn
ing the span of black oxen were gone too.
The kraal gate was down and they had gone
We hunted all day, but we could not find
them. Then On Jacob got mad with rage,
and the Young Baas Frank told him that
one of the kaffir boys had said to him that
he had heard my father sell them to the Ba-
| sutu for sheep which he was TO pay to us in
| tuC SuuilHtl IL was a ilts buI i'dfiS II dlAN
hated my father because of something about
a woman-a Zulu girl Next morning. when
| we were asleep, just at day break, ON Jacob
Muller and Baas Frank and two Kaffirs
came into the hut and pulled us out, the old
man, my uncle my father, my mother aud
myself, and tied us up to four mimosa trees,
| with buffalo reims Then the kaffrs went
| away and On Jacob asked nv father where
the cattle were, and my father told him that
| he did not know. Then he took off his hat
and said a prayer to the Big Man in the sky,
and when he had done Baas Frank came up
with a gun, and stood quite close and shot
| my father dead and he fell forward and
| hung quite over the REIN, his head touching
his feet. Then he loaded the gun again and
shot the old man, my uncle, and he slipped
| down dead, and his hands stuck up in the all
| against the REIN Next he shot my mother
but the bullet did not kill her, and cut the
REIN, and she ran away, and he ran after
her and killed Der. When that was done ht
came back to shoot me; but l was young
then and did not know that it is better to be
dead than to live like dog. and begged
and prayed for mercy while he was loading
| the gun.
@But the baas only laughed, and said he
would teach Hottentots how TO steal cattle
and old ON Jacob prayed out loud TO the Big
Man and said he was very sorry for me, but
it was the dear Lords will And then. JUS
as Baas Frank lifted the gun he dropped il
again, for there, coming softly, softly ovel
the brow Of the hill, in and out between thu
bushes, were all the sixteen oxen. They haC
got out in the night and strayed away int
| some kloof for a change of pasture, ant
| come back when they were full and tired o
being alone. On Jacob turned quite whit,
and scratched his head, and then fell upoI
his knees and thanked the dear Lord for say
ing my life; and just then the English
| woman, Baas Franks mother, came dowI
from the wagon to see what the firing wa
at, and when she saw all the people dead anC
me weeping, tied to the tree, and Learned
what it was about, she went quite mad, fol
sometimes she had kind heart when she wa
not drunk, and said that curse would fal
on them, and that they would all die in blood
And she took a knife and cut me loose
though Baas Frank wanted to kill me, so tina
l might tell no tales; and l ran away, travel
ing by night and hiding by day, for wa
very much frightened, till got to Natal, am
there l stopped, working in Natal till tin
land became English when Baas Croft hire,
me to drive his cart up from Maritzburg
and living by here found Bans Frank, look
ing bigger but Just the same except for hi
beard.
"There, baas, that is the truth, and ali tb
truth, and that is why l hate Baas Frank
because be shot my father and mother, an,
| why baas Frank hates me- because he canno
| forget, that he did it and saw him do 1t. for
as our people say, 'one always hates a maj
one has wounded with a spear" and havin
finished his narrative, the miserable looking
little man picked up his greasy old felt hat
that had leather strap fixed round tn
crown, In which were stuck couple of frayet
ostrich feathers, and jammed it down owe
his ears, and then fell to drawing circles o.
| the soil with his long toes. His auditors onl
looked at one another. Such a ghastly tai
seemed to be beyond comment They neve
doubted its truth; the mans way of telling
carried conviction with it. And indeed, tw
of them at any rate, had hearl such storie
before. Most people have who live in tn
wilder parts of South Africa, though the
are not all to be taken for gospel
"Gou say" remarked old Silas, at last
"that the woman said that curse would fla
on them and that they would die in blood
She was right Twelve years ago ON Jaco
and his wife were murdered by a party q
Mapochs KafIirs, down on the edge of tina
very Lydenburg veldt There was a grea
noise about it at the time, remember, bu
nothing came of it. Baas Frank was nc
there. He was away shooting buck so b
escaped and Inherited all his fathers farm
and cattle and came to live here"
49, said the Hottentot, without shown
the slightest interest or surprise Il knew
would lie So but wish had been there {
see it. | saw that there was devil in til
woman, and that they would die as she sale
When there is devil in people they alway
speak the truth, because they can't help il
Look, baas, | draw Il circle in the sand wit
my foot, and / say some words So and g
last the ends touch There, that is the circl
of ON Jacob and his wife the EnglishwomaI
The ends have touched and they are deaC
An old witch doctor taught me TO draw I'll
circle of a mans life and what words to sd,
And now | draw another of Baas Frank Al